Bryson W. Katona is an instructor of medicine in the division of
gastroenterology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dear Colleagues,
In this issue of The New Gastroenterologist, the feature article examines recent advances in the field of
cholangiopancreatoscopy. In this
article, William Sonnier, Meir Mizrahi (University of South Alabama),
and Douglas Pleskow (Beth Israel
Deaconess) provide a fantastic overview of the technologic advances in
the field of cholangiopancreatoscopy
as well as the clinical indications
for this procedure and the risks involved. Also in this issue, Deborah
Fisher (Duke University) and Darrell
Gray (Ohio State University) provide
advice about how to appropriately
and responsibly handle social media. This is an incredibly important
topic, given the increasing pervasiveness of social media in many
aspects of our personal and professional lives.

Additionally, Madelin Siedler (AGA)and Yngve Falck-Ytter (Case-Western)demystify the process by which AGAguidelines are developed by outliningthe workflow from inception to finalpublication. Also, Yamini Natarajan,Richa Shukla, and Jordan Shapiro(Baylor College of Medicine) providean update about a recent meetingwith their local representative, GeneGreen (Texas’s 29th congressionaldistrict), who is the Ranking Mem-ber for the Committee on Energyand Commerce’s Subcommittee onHealth.

Finally, in this issue is the second
part in a series on legal issues for
gastroenterologists. In this article,
which is again authored by a very
experienced group of attorneys,
many important issues are covered,
including what steps should be taken
if you are sued, what you should and
should not do after being sued, as
well as tips on how to best prepare
for both deposition and trial.

If there are topics that you would
be interested in writing or hearing
about in The New Gastroenterologist,
please let us know. You can contact
me (bryson.katona@uphs.upenn.
edu) or the Managing Editor of The
New Gastroenterologist, Ryan Farrell
( rfarrell@gastro.org).